This Blog is being maintained by Dr. Kevin C. Desouza. Dr. Desouza is on the faculty of the Information School at the University of Washington. The Blog will be used to provide updates on his current research projects – Leveraging Ideas for Organizational Innovation, and Demystifying the Link between
Innovation and Business Value.

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Big Think Strategy (Harvard Business School Press, 2007) is an interesting and thought-provoking book. As Schmitt notes (pg. 15), “data, spreadsheets, and analytical charts are mostly reactive tools that illuminate the past. They cannot envision strategies directed inherently towards the future. They are good for diagnosing problems, not for creating big ideas and powerful solutions…” I could not agree more. Too often executives are paralyzed by analysis and are risk averse. As a result organizations make incremental changes and adapt to their environments in a reactive manner. Only a handful of organizations have the capabilities, and will power, to truly undertake risky and breakthrough innovations.

Recently, with two colleagues, Yukika Awazu (Bentley College, USA) and Ashley Braganza (Cranfield School of Management, UK), I wrote a paper that examined challenges faced by incumbents in developing sustainable innovation programs. This paper can be accessed via the Institute for Innovation in Information Management (see www.ischool.washington.edu/i3m) and will be forthcoming in Research-Technology Management (see LINK). We open our paper with the following paragraph:“When facing disruptive innovation, incumbent firms often exhibit incompetence and respond inappropriately. Organizational structures, routines, and systems that are tailored to existing operations prevent incumbent firms from responding to and leading disruptive innovation. As firms grow, they design systems, processes, and structures that are suitable for current operations. In this way, organizations can minimize their costs and increase their operational effectiveness. Hierarchies reduce transaction costs and increase efficiency. However, efficient, rigidities embedded in functional hierarchies and authority structures do not fit with the natural flow of innovation processes. For innovation to occur, ideas need to be represented freely, exchanged, and filtered. Idea generation activities are typically done in informal or open environments. Cross-functional departments or loosely coupled structures are better for mixing people in various knowledge domains. The optimized operational structure may hamper incumbent firms, particularly with respect to disruptive innovation. Operational protocol is often unsuited for the quite different processes of calibrating inventions and turning them into innovation. In this case, incumbent firms tend to invest in daily, minor, incremental innovations that fit their current organizational design…”

Given my interest in the topic of strategic innovation, I was pleased to find a book that proposes a framework for thinking about breakthrough innovations. Schmitt focuses his comments on how should organizations (1) source new ideas, (2) evaluate risky (and breakthrough) ideas, (3) commercialize ideas by developing enabling strategies, (4) execute big-think strategies, (5) lead via big-thinking, and (5) develop sustainable processes for having repeatable success with big-thinking. The book is laden with interesting examples; the writing style is highly conversational; I enjoyed reading the book; Highly recommended!

About Me

Kevin C. Desouza is an Assistant Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington. He is also Adjunct Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering at the College of Engineering. He founded the Institute for National Security Education and Research, an inter-disciplinary, university-wide initiative, in August 2006 and served as its Director until February 2008. He currently serves as the Director of the Institute for Innovation in Information Management (I3M). He has seven books to his name. His latest book is Managing Knowledge Security: Strategies for Protecting Your Company’s Intellectual Assets (Kogan Page, 2007). In addition, he has published over 100 articles in prestigious practitioner and academic journals. He has received over $1.2 million of research funding from both private and government organizations. Dr. Desouza is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.